A tourist has been missing for five days after being swallowed by a sinkhole in the centre of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
Rescue workers are continuing their attempts to find Vijaya Lakshmi, who was visiting from India, after she fell 26ft beneath a shopping street and disappeared.
Chilling CCTV footage shows the 48-year-old walking along the pavement when the ground suddenly collapses under her feet and she falls through a square-shaped hole.
Men sitting on a bench nearby narrowly avoid being dragged in with her, struggling to get their balance.
An initial search recovered Ms Lakshmi’s shoes, but rescue operations have so far found no other sign of her despite using ground-penetrating radar.
Local media reported that the search area had been expanded to include tunnels leading to a sewage plant around 7km away after a portion of a concrete pipe beneath the sinkhole was found to be broken, suggesting that she could have been pulled in by fast-flowing water.
Datuk G Parameswaran, the president of the Malaysian Water and Wastewater Quality Safety Association, told the Straits Times: “Sewage water is also very harsh, and the current has a minimum flow speed of one metre per second. Theoretically, she could have travelled up to 86.4km within 24 hours.”
High-powered water jets have been deployed to try to dislodge debris at a manhole about 70 metres from where Ms Lakshmi fell. The authorities have warned that the presence of toxic gases in the sewage system would have diminished her chances of survival.
Ms Lakshmi and her family had been in Malaysia for about two months, and were due to fly home on Sunday. The authorities have provided a counsellor for relatives including her husband and son.
The shopping area, known for goldsmiths and jewellers, is about a 10-minute drive from the city’s Petronas Towers.
The Search Continues
City authorities have sought to quell alarm among Kuala Lumpur’s residents, but fears were stoked further on Wednesday when another sinkhole on the same Jalan Masjid India road opened up 50 metres from the first one after a heavy overnight downpour.
It happened at around 2.30am on Wednesday when the street was quiet. No one was injured.
At a press conference, Fadillah Yusof, the deputy prime minister, said the government planned to launch an investigation into the reason behind the sinkholes.
“For now, it is safe,” he said. “We need to find out the source of the sinkholes. The public should be safe as long as they follow city officials’ instructions.”
Sinkhole Causes
Sinkholes generally form when underground water dissolves the rock on the surface, causing a hole to form.
Prof Jeffrey Chiang Choong Luin, the president of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia, said the close proximity of the first and second sinkholes suggested a link between the incidents.
“There could be a service pipe that has been compromised running underground,” he told The Straits Times. “If it has been compromised, this would affect the soil’s integrity, and the water seepage would erode the soil.”
Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the mayor, sought to counter viral social media allegations about lax development standards on a Sunday, telling a news conference that the city “remains safe unless proven otherwise by studies”.
A City in Turmoil
The incident has sparked widespread concern about the safety of Kuala Lumpur’s infrastructure and has raised questions about the city’s development practices. As the search for Ms Lakshmi continues, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the potential dangers posed by sinkholes, especially in urban areas. The city is now tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the safety of its citizens and tourists, while also addressing the underlying causes of these sinkhole occurrences.
